An attempt to help explain the mysteries and magic that are part and parcel of 'probation'.

Monday, 16 May 2016

TR Update

"This blog is not fit for purpose, bends the truth, and is so one sided!"

Blame the Tories, Grayling the socialist democrats scum and the liars in Parliament whose duplicitous double speak saw the TR in. The weak who let it in and the fools who prop it up, but we should not look to blame the poor soul who held the case. Managing on Crap IT over work schedules and no workload measurements. CRC led targets NPS in a mess and more to slip through. Any preventable issues that might have been picked up by the experienced and skilled, those with practice and some vested vocational qualification and training of professionalism and pride. OH sorry, rewind 2/3 years for that.

*******What experiences are ROs having recalling in CRC? Avoid at all costs due to loss of revenue? Drop inconvenient licence conditions? Send out search parties? Hope remanded to custody? When is a recall a recall or not? I'm not clear anymore. See any link to avoidable further offences inc SFO? I can. Guidance gratefully received, back of a fag packet will do given recent form. How about some national consistency and policy above profit, after all we are part of a justice system. Justice needs to be seen to be done, we need to be accountable to something other than the bottom line.

*******South Yorks CRC encouraged RO's to breach last month. This month we have to run breaches through management first. We've been told we are breaching too much and the system cannot cope with the volume. Meanwhile TR has impacted on UPW. We now have very poor compliance rate, but we have to cut down on our breaches. Senior managers are leaving the CRC and we still have not got a model that works!

*******Well the National Probation Service are currently implementing E3. This means the majority of sentencing reports will be written by untrained PSO's and the majority of offenders supervised by untrained PSO's. Yes they'll get a bit of training and development, but they will not be Probation Officers with professional probation training and qualifications. So as much as we may scrutinise the poorly trained and unqualified CRC PSO left holding the bag, the fact is that the NPS is no different. Expect many more SFO's due to inadequate sentencing reports and poor supervision of sexual and violent offenders.

How's everyone getting on with the new tick-box and wordcount limited shoddy Pre-Sentence Report format? That's another bit of NPS E3 innovation for you!

********Anyone can write reports they are not difficult but doing them with a lot of the word Thus you need to be qualified as a PO as the word thus is full of the sort old leaning of pretentious rubbish they rely on to pretend reports are more than a fact report on a range of pre determined issues.

*******Rubbish. Not anyone can write a good pre sentence report. The new short format report is a template for dummies aimed at those that cannot write reports. This is why they will not let PSO's officially loose on writing complex reports on the high risk and dangerous cases.

*******

Through the gate is a sham, I've not seen anything useful. Catch 22 and the others are milking it for their CRC's. They sign up prisoners pre-release, complete a CV, have a chat about housing options and that's it. Then they email probation officers telling us what we already know, summarise what we're already doing, but provide nothing. This nothing is what they call 'soft outcomes' and how they generate income for doing nothing.

*******Yep exactly. Apart from in some cases it's more dangerous than doing nothing because they say prisoner has accommodation when they don't which comes with it's own risks. If PO thinks case is to be released somewhere safe then finds out actually there is no bed and they have plans to live with vulnerable children when actually this was known to prison and offender months before.

*******It's because it's easy money. In some prisons all prisoners are automatically referred in to the CRC and TTG. For those that decline or opt out, any application they make for housing and employment services opts them back in as its a dual referral to the CRC and TTG. The actual TTG service provided is usually an assessment of wants and needs. Then an application to the homeless department or an application for a bank account is made, or some other feeble activity TTG can take credit for, and that's whether the prisoner needs it or not.

I'm regulary getting emails from TTG staff in prisons informing me they've done things like housing applications and CV's for prisoners that already have housing and CV's. The most useless dealings I've had with TTG was a man automatically referred in and provided a homeless letter to his local authority and a job search even though he was about to be deported. Referral + Assessment + Actions/Outcomes = Payment. In some prisons governors have no idea this is happening. Some OMU's don't realise either and seem to forget that CRC's are not probation any more. When they realise they'll be kicking out TTG services.

*******The most annoying part for me is that I'm constantly badgered for information about whether I've found accommodation for my newly released prisoners so they can claim them for their targets when I've worked my arse off ! Also, I have to constantly chase up staff in custody for info about any resettlement help for clients. Very frustrating.

*******Another important point is that they do nothing about checking potential release address for risk. They seem to see any decision around not approving address as an irritation but I suppose staff with no risk assessment training can't be blamed, it's down to their masters!

I have had one or two good experiences with TTG. One from the Scrubs came out of her prison, met with my homeless service user and got a taxi with him to the hostel I had found for him. This was at a time when I was rushed off my feet even more than I am now. I was grateful to her and to whoever decided it was ok to pay for a taxi the service user had a gammy leg. Another couple of incidents were about linking up with my service users in prison, arranging three ways on the phone etc. some og them chase me for stuff. They can be very useful, and I appreciate their efforts on behalf of my imprisoned service users

re 12 45 and 840- I agree with 12 45 - they did the work that TTG is contracted to do. And as for you 840, I don't know if you were in Probation prior to TTG, but the work you referred to with your other 2 cases, was what we did all the time in the original system, and TTG workers should not be praised for this as though it was something exceptional. Indeed it was Probation's responsibility to sort out accom, liaising with Probation staff based in the prison.

I can see the new staff in the CRCs thinking that any help from TTG workers are favours, not a responsibility. So sad that they will never know of the automatic systems which have been crushed and re-named as C G's brill new idea!

Indeed, I can remember several years ago, the prison giving Probation the wrong release date for a high risk offender, even though I questioned it, as it was our responsibility, incl the bail hostel, to ensure a place was available for him. Then I got a phone call from the prison the day before the changed release, saying he was coming out later that day, a month before planned!! It was just before Christmas and the hostels were full.(a bit like a nativity play without the 3 wise men) I and my manager rang around the homeless hotels,(taking into consideration that his licence conditions included an exclusion zone away from his family). We found one, who would take him for 2 nights, to give the bail hostel the opportunity to move residents about, to provide a place. I had to drive to the prison to pick him up, the next day, which was Christmas Eve! As everyone was going home at 3pm, I was off to pick up a potentially dangerous man, accompanied by my manager. No harm done, just wracked nerves, keeping the man calm as we drove.

So, being very useful, arranging 3 ways etc, should never be seen as favours. Indeed, does Probation staff in prison not help their colleagues on the outside anymore?

I agree. Arranging 3 ways for lazy probation officer that failed to visit and paying a taxi fare, is that what TTG does? What happened to the mentor meeting the released prisoner at the gate and taking him to a new life full of housing, education and employment. All I see is a lot of nothing happening. TTG does not work, these are private companies claiming outcomes for doing nothing.

Transforming Rehabilitation has transformed rehabilitation but not for the better. A big thanks to Chris Grayling and his Probation Chief Officers for making it happen. Probation jobs, experience, professionalism, credibility and good practices all gone. There is no longer rehabilitation, the prisons are on fire and people are dying as a result.

Will Justice Secretary Michael Gove reverse Grayling's TR disaster?

Will former Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan put the power of the Mayor's office behind a call to reverse TR in London?

"What happens when these firms, with their inexorable expansionist logic, bite off more than they can chew? We pay anyway. We paid G4S; we will pay it again when its prisons catch fire. We will pay A4e when it finds no jobs, we will pay Serco when its probation services fail. We will pay because even when they're not delivered by the public sector, these are still public services, and the ones that aren't too big to fail are too important. What any government creates with massive-scale outsourcing is not "new efficiency", it is a shadow state; we can't pin it down any more than we can vote it out. All we can do is watch."

It's My Blog

Welcome to the wonderful world of probation! These are the personal thoughts of an ordinary probation officer struggling to come to terms with constant change, whilst trying to do a useful job for society. Sadly, change is so often obviously not progress. I am fully aware that my views do not represent official policy of government, my Service or possibly anyone else - but hey - it's my blog!

ATV 1962 Windsor Davies

About Me

A grumpy, disillusioned, CQSW trained, generic, main grade probation officer based in a small English town. All my contemporaries have either left, retired or been promoted. Newer colleagues simply don't understand the journey I've been on from advise, assist and befriend. (If there is anyone of similar name in the NAPO handbook, it's not me).